K3 randomly changing settings

Can anyone give me any insight into why, when I am shooting with a K3, the white balance setting suddenly changes; occasionally the drive mode does as well? I thought my nose might be inadvertently hitting the 4-way controller but I have deliberately tried to avoid this and it still seems to happen. Also I haven't had this problem with previous Pentax DSLRs that have the same 4- way controller.

I can't offer any explanation for this I'm afraid, had my K-3 since last November and nothing like this has happened. In fact, the camera has performed flawlessly so far.

Regards
David

I too have had several experiences where I've found the white balance setting to have changed. I believe however that it's almost certainly down to the user rather than a camera anomaly.

In my case it was due to how I was gripping the camera in my right hand and unconsciously allowing my right thumb to put pressure on the four-way switch, thereby altering the WB setting.

Hope this helps....

I have noticed the same thing from time to time and I also think that the reason is user error. I think one has to be very careful not to touch the 4 way switch inadvertently. I do not know why this should be more of a problem with the K3 as opposed to previous models .

I'm assuming you're talking about the modes changing when the camera is actually on and being used? The only other thing to rule out is that its not going into sleep mode, or you're not talking about these changes occurring after switching off & on again .... if that is happening then you should check the 'memory' item in the camera menu - here you can configure exactly which settings you want to have 'fixed' after switching off, and which you would like to return to the default.

Thanks Friends for your helpful comments. The modes are changing while I am using the camera. The weight of your comments indicates that it is probably something I am doing rather than the camera, and I tend to agree. I've done some checking this weekend and some measuring and I am pretty certain that my nose is the problem. I use my left eye to view the image, which puts my nose in the vicinity of the 4-way controller, pretty well smack on the white balance switch. With the K5, it is not quite such a direct hit and my nose is nearer the live view button - and it is the case that I have occasionally switched LV on in the past without wanting to. I took several shots today using my right eye, which puts my nose right out of the way, and I didn't seem to have a problem. I will continue the the experiment, although I found it quite difficult to change to my right eye. Thanks again for taking the trouble to respond

OK, glad you've sorted that out - sorry, can't contain myself .... looking at your picture there on the left as you say this, I do think the problem is entirely understandable!!!

I had a similar experience once with the K7. I hadn't had it long, and had taken it to work on a night shift to photograph a site where I had to wear a hard hat ... well, I just couldn't get the pop-up flash to work. Kept trying all the settings, nothing! Then when the hat came off it suddenly started working ... doh!!!! took a while to realise, the peaked front was just touching the flash and pushing it down a little bit without me realising

Great spot McGreg. Love ir.

It might be worth trying the magnifying eye cup as this adds a little more camera to nose distance...

I'm so pleased to read this, it happened to me too, but never publicised it because I felt so stupid. Was cured by wearing a different style of hat. I haven't found a source of those baseball caps with the peak at the back